U.S. immigration agency defends decision to release detainees

March 14, 2013|Reuters

* Immigration official blames budget cuts

* Says alternative would have been worse

By Rachelle Younglai

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. immigration agencydefended its decision to release hundreds of illegal immigrantsfrom detention because of budget cuts, saying on Thursday thatthe alternative would have been to reduce smuggling and childpornography investigations.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and othergovernment agencies have been forced to reduce spending after$85 billion in automatic budget cuts went into effect thismonth.

But Republicans said the Obama administration released"criminals" in order to pressure lawmakers into undoing theautomatic budget cuts, which were enacted to reduce thecountry's debt.

"This was an ICE call. The White House did not make thisdecision," ICE Director John Morton said at a House ofRepresentatives homeland security subcommittee hearing toexamine the agency's actions.

Morton said the only way to meet the budget requirements wasto release low-risk detainees and noted that it cost roughly$122 per day to keep someone in a detention center compared withabout $7 per day to keep someone under surveillance throughmethods like electronic monitoring devices.

The other option would have been to reduce domesticinvestigations targeting human smugglers and childpornographers, Morton said.

"We have limited resources," he said.

ICE, which is under the Department of Homeland Security, hasreleased 2,228 illegal immigrants from the detention centers because of the budget constraints.

The agency's mid-February announcement came around the sametime Obama administration officials were warning of the direeffects of the spending cuts, including delayed flights, meatshortages and government layoffs.

It also came as Republican lawmakers wrestle with how todeal with the millions of illegal immigrants who are living andworking in the United States.

"This looks like this was a way to undermine comprehensiveimmigration reform," Representative Charlie Dent, a Republicanfrom Pennsylvania, said at the hearing.

The chairman of the subcommittee, John Carter, who isworking on a bill with Democrats to overhaul the immigrationsystem, chided Morton for the timing and lack of communication.